Walmart Looks to Expand Its Healthcare Presence to Self-Funded Plans

October 19, 2021 - The leading retailer continues to make in-roads in the healthcare space, now with an offering aimed at self-funded employer health plans.

Walmart Partnership Takes Aim Self-Funded Employer Health Plans

Walmart has partnered with a digital platform to provide self-funded employers and their employees with access to cost-effective healthcare.

“We are committed to providing care to customers and the communities we serve through an integrated, omnichannel approach that improves engagement, health equity, and outcomes,” stated Cheryl Pegus, MD, executive vice president of health and wellness at Walmart.

Self-insured employers will have access to Walmart’s retail and specialty pharmacy services, prescription drugs, telehealth services, optical care, over the counter services, and community health centers. Certain Walmart locations offer a number of immunizations and COVID-19 drive-thru testing, as well.

In addition to the partnership, Walmart recently launched its own brand of analog insulin which may save customers 58 to 75 percent off the price of branded insulin, increasing access to affordable chronic disease management. READ MORE

RPM Leads to Increased Patient Engagement for Chronic Disease

Remote patient monitoring technologies are effective for chronic disease management, so long as they are paired with other patient engagement strategies like health coaching, according to new data published in JAMA Network Open.

The study found that a program fusing health coaching with remote patient monitoring was able to lower blood pressure by anywhere from 53 to 85 percent, depending on the severity of condition at baseline. The researchers enrolled just over 28,000 adults with varying degrees of hypertension into Hello Heart, a remote patient monitoring program that uses at-home blood pressure monitoring paired with some health coaching via a patient engagement app, to much avail.

Median systolic blood pressure improved for 53 percent of the participants with baseline elevated blood pressure, by 70 percent among those with stage 1 hypertension, and by 85 percent among those with stage 2 hypertension. That translates into a mean systolic blood pressure drop of 7.2 mm Hg for those with elevated blood pressure, 12.2 mm Hg for those with stage 1 hypertension, and 20.9 mm Hg for those with stage 2 hypertension. READ MORE

Hospital Report Need for Revenue Cycle Transformation

Hospital revenue cycle transformation is needed to elevate poor enterprise performance as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, experts from healthcare management consulting firm Kaufman Hall reveal in a new report.

Three-quarters of hospital and health system leaders surveyed by the firm said their organization experienced “adverse revenue cycle impacts” during the pandemic, including a higher percentage of Medicaid patients (34 percent of respondents) and increased rates of denials (33 percent).

Many hospitals also saw other changes in payer mix, with 29 percent of respondents reporting a lower percentage of commercially insured patients and 22 percent reporting a higher percentage of self-pay or uninsured patients. About 27 percent of hospital leaders also reported an increase in bad debt or uncompensated care over the past year.

Not all the adverse revenue cycle impacts are a direct result of the pandemic. Increased denial rates, for example, stemmed from payer policy, such as new site of care restrictions and a general lack of understanding of the provider side of care. READ MORE

Four States Chosen for ACO-based Rural Telehealth Delivery Model

Organizations in four states will use telehealth and other services through an ACO to improve healthcare access and reduce health disparities under the Community Health Access and Rural Transformation (CHART) model.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicare Services will provide funding to the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB), South Dakota’s Department of Social Services, Texas’ Health and Human Services Commission and the Washington State Healthcare Authority to implement the CHART model. Those organizations will develop telehealth and other services through an ACO transformation tracks that leverages value-based payment models.

The CHART Model was launched in 2020 through the CMS Innovation Center to address healthcare disparities experienced by the more than 57 million Americans living in rural communities. READ MORE

Roche’s Alzheimer’s Treatment Receives Breakthrough Status

FDA recently granted Roche’s anti-amyloid beta antibody, gantenerumab, breakthrough therapy designation to treat individuals living with Alzheimer’s disease.

The agency based its decision on recent data from the ongoing SCarlet RoAD and Marguerite RoAD trials, which showed that gantenerumab significantly reduced brain amyloid plaque, a pathological hallmark of Alzheimer’s disease.

Researchers are incorporating data from the trials into the optimized design of two global, placebo-controlled, and randomized Phase 3 trials, GRADUATE 1 and 2. In the trials, researchers are evaluating gantenerumab in over 2,000 participants.

Gantenerumab is an investigational IgG1 antibody designed to bind to aggregated forms of beta-amyloid and remove brain amyloid plaques. Roche will continue to explore various approaches and molecules to address key pathways of Alzheimer’s disease, including beta-amyloid, tau, and other innovative tools. READ MORE

Machine Learning Tool to Aid Study of Tumors Post-Immunotherapy

By combining detailed mapping of the biochemical composition of tumors with machine learning, Johns Hopkins University engineers created the first non-invasive optical probe to understand the complex changes in tumors after immunotherapy.

The study, which was conducted in collaboration with colleagues at the University of Arkansas, used a technique called Raman spectroscopy. With this technique, which uses light to identify the molecular composition of materials, the team probed colon cancer tumors in mice treated with the two types of immune checkpoint inhibitors used in immunotherapy.

To train the algorithm to identify the range of features induced by immunotherapy, the team used about 7,500 spectral data points from 25 tumors. The differences were subtle but statistically significant and consistent with proteomics analysis performed on the samples.

While more research is necessary, the team indicated their work could pave the way to develop a method of predictive analytics to determine how a patient will respond to immunotherapy. READ MORE